Bill Everett created Marvel superheroes before Marvel even existed, most notably Namor, the Sub-Mariner in 1939. When superhero characters fell out of favor, Everett shifted into the burgeoning horror market. This new collection focuses on his comics crafted between 1950-55, representing the height of the horror craze before the Comics Code censorship altered the industry.
Buy The Atlas Creator Collection No. 3: Bill Everett Vol. 1The oversized book contains over 200 pages of Everett’s cartooning but is also supplemented with a fascinating 25-page introduction to his career filled with photos and art, along with a closing 35 pages of his full-page cover art for his multiple Atlas comics.
While the majority of the stories are horror-focused, a few sci-fi oddities are also included. “The First Rocket” has a wild concept about astronauts discovering that Hitler survived WWII and is running a Nazi slave camp on the moon, complete with wonky science like calling the moon a planet and taking two weeks to travel there by lightspeed. “The Eye” has shades of 3 Body Problem with the appearance of a sentient force hovering in Earth’s atmosphere, in this case a literal giant eyeball. “Freddy’s Friend” has a robot servant with the wish-fulfilling powers of a genie, leading to disaster when his owner attempts to discover the origin of his power.
The horror stories aren’t quite as interesting but still have a few fun ideas. Two different stories involve magic glasses that con the wearer into believing his lover is beautiful instead of a hideous ogre. “The Rat Race” stars an obsessed scientist who locks himself away from society for six months to fully focus on elaborate rat experiments, a bad idea when a particularly smart rodent appears. “The Mark of the Witch” is a time-travelling witchcraft tale that mentions a temporal council, perhaps a predecessor of Marvel’s Time Variance Authority.
The rest of the horror stories feature fan-friendly pap involving the usual suspects of vampires, werewolves, and ghosts, clearly churned out for quantity over quality but still anchored by Everett’s fine linework. Early entries are longer stories believed to have been written by Everett, shifting to shorter, simpler tales, especially when Stan Lee stepped in for about a quarter of the later entries. With just a few pages to develop and conclude stories, there’s just enough room for quick hits of familiar tropes, leading to little literary enjoyment in these later tales. The one clear standout is Lee’s “Zombie!’ where an evil man brings a corpse back to life for nefarious purposes, until the zombie is presented with a task he will never agree to complete.
The early horror works are rendered too dark and murky, sacrificing clarity for mood. Later works benefit from likely improved production processes, while the sci-fi stories excel thanks to their lighter coloring. Original dot coloring is retained, although solid color background fill areas appear to have been remastered to their now-pristine hues. Everett’s art moves from generic pulp formula to truly impressive craftsmanship in the later years, seemingly representing his desire to stop responding to market dynamics in favor of true artistic merit.
While the stories are very much products of their time, Everett’s meticulous dedication to his craft is evident on every page. The new collection allows a new generation to appreciate his impressive work in supersized glory on glossy 10” x 14” pages.
